Have you ever noticed the fact that whenever there was an opportunity for the surviving Beatles to get together, there was always something in the way?
Up until 1980 it seems that all members of the band were resolute about not being seen together post break up. However, following John’s “thing” this was a more regular occurrence. We do know that there were guest appearances on each other’s albums and tracks. George’s All Those Years Ago, where the Threetles made their forced debut due to the sad events surrounding the song. Then there’s the Ringo album of 1973. The whole band appeared on that album, but NOT together on the same track. That would have been a reunion wouldn’t it and that just wouldn’t do!
What do you think?
It is almost as if a further decision had been made. Is it possible that they came to some kind of business agreement to not reunite in any kind of form? Or at least not to be seen to be reunited, just to keep the game bubbling over and keep the fans hoping for the aforementioned Holy Grail? It’s not as though they didn’t communicate with each other during the post break up period at all is it?
Or perhaps it was simply just bad blood, pain, loathing and familiarity having bred a terrible contempt?
It’s well documented about John and Paul getting together in New York during the late Seventies or during the infamous Lost Weekend period. You would see Ringo and Paul together in the Broad Street film? You would see George and Ringo together on TV shows like (here in the UK) the Michael Aspel Show or the wonderful Carl Perkins and Friends special. This is a good example of what I mean. It’s quite obvious that Paul was a big Carl Perkins fan as Carl’s guest appearance on Tug Of War with the song Get It underlines, not to mention their 1993 get together as witnessed on the video My Old Friend released in 1998. It does beg the question why didn’t Paul play on the Carl Perkins and Friends show? Was it because Paul and George had some insurmountable problem with each other or was it to perpetuate the “Beatles will never get together again” myth?...Well that is until the Anthology project where they could then milk it for all it was worth? Even recently at the Anfield concert to celebrate the Liverpool City of Culture event, there seemed to be an undercurrent of something not quite right between Ringo and Paul. All those, “that was never on the cards”, and “that’s just not going to happen” type comments seem to illustrate what appears to be an ongoing problem. It has been said that Ringo’s nose was put out of joint because he didn’t get the nod from Paul to join him onstage at the Live 8 concert? To be honest who could blame him? It was the biggest concert for years and Paul was, shall we say, VERY represented at the event (to use some badly written England). Why didn’t Ringo play that show with Paul I wonder? It’s not like they hadn’t played together over the years is it? At the Concert for George there didn’t seem to be any problem about them getting together. It seems to me that it is a bit of a prickly place inside the Beatles world. That said, how often have we seen Paul and Yoko together or Yoko and the lovely Olivia together recently? Quite often I’d say and further, it seems a lot more than it used to be. Who would have thought that? The best example of this is the recent Larry King special on the Love spectacular where uniquely, they were all seen together in the one place at the same time. I just wonder if they’d have joined forces like this if John and George were around?
Whilst I don’t dispute the “family” element of relationships between the band members and the “deep regard” they have all had for each other, I’m not convinced that all is that well. I’ve always felt it to be quite sad that somehow, they couldn’t all just be in the same room showing a united front in public during the time when we had all four, post split. This does seem to illustrate the strength of bad feeling that ran deep in Camp Beatle not only following the split but indeed right to this day. As I think I’ve said before, join a band – it’s the best place to lose your mates.
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4 comments:
If Paul and Ringo do not want to get together because they do not want to appear to be making a Beatles reunion, get real guys, you are just Paul and Ringo now, two guys who USED TO PLAY in The Beatles. The Beatles do not exist anymore. They didn't even in the 90's with the reunion songs Free As A Bird and Real Love. But if they are really mates like they say they are, and they love to play music, then get together and do it. There won't be any Beatlemania, or magic like there was in the 60's, just two ol' blokes up there having a good time making some music. And The Beatles remain forever in history now, locked in a time frame of 8 short years in the 60's when they recorded their catalogue. All that remains to be done to the legacy is that the music be released in the technology of our current time frame. But it seems Apple, their sorry excuse for a company, cannot get its act together and release it before most of the first generation beatlefans die off, or at best, lose their hearing to the point of being unable to enjoy the remixes. Remember, true 60's fans of The Beatles and the other bands of the time, listened to the music quite loudly, so our hearing ain't what it used to be....Are they waiting for the "Second Coming" before they release the remixed catalogue? It certainly seems that way. Will Ringo and Paul still be with us when the remixes are released? One has to wonder....At the rate Apple is going, it appears Julian, Sean, Dhani, James, and Zak will be the ones collecting royalties on the sales of the remixed catalogue. Meanwhile, The Beatles will have already "gotten together" and given their first reunion concert for the Big Man behind the pearly gates, who surely is a fan as well. And just think of all the new songs John and George have been writing up there that will be on the program!! Paul will have a lot of catching up to do! But it should be a helluva reunion! The only one that can happen now...
Brian was the glue.
I can say no more.
Nobody outside those four guys has or will ever know just how crazy and demented the experience of being Beatles was and what effects the experience had on them, particularly in the first few years following the end. To some extent or other they all went through recovery phases of some kind (some more public than others) during the 70s, and they wisely kept their heads and avoided getting together in response to Sid Bernstein's crazy mega-million proposals. I think in general you read far too much into their motives. The pressure on them as individuals was quite enough; simply appearing together in public would have renewed the pressure even if they didn't get together to make music, and if they ever did THAT, FORGET IT!! The pressure on them to create works of genius would have inevitably caused friction and they had had quite enough of that, thank you very much. George Harrison in particular enjoyed his post-Beatle career immensely, befriending and working with other musicians, doing what he wanted to do in and out of music (and gardening when he didn't want to do anything else). What reason would he have had to return to the gigantic ego-mess that was the Beatles? We should all simply be thankful that they put far more than their fair share of themselves into being Beatles and creating what they did. I do not blame them at all for never having gotten back together.
I agree with the last comment. I also believe that we fans have put terrible pressure on the Beatles by constantly clamoring for a reunion. John in particular knew that one could never live up to our expectations and would only be a disappointment. Yet we're STILL doing it--look at all the fuss over "Now and Then"! Leave Paul and Ringo in peace, people. The dream is over.
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